Information Technology and Urbanization Economies

It is increasingly recognized that urbanization economies – the benefits of living in cities – can be generated by proximity to large cities (OECD 2015). Several scholars have put forward that places near other large cities are increasingly able to ‘borrow size’ of their neighbours to generate these economies, and that this may explain recent patterns of (economic) growth across European cities, whereby the largest cities have not necessarily had the highest growth rates (Dijkstra et al. 2013, Burger and Meijers 2016). These studies suggest that Europe’s unique polycentric urban structure increasingly allows urbanization benefits to be generated by proximity to large agglomerations, due to improvements in physical and digital infrastructure.Indeed, there is plenty of evidence that increasing the effective density of regions by improving physical transportation infrastructure leads to higher levels of urbanization economies (Graham 2019). For improvements in digital infrastructure however, such evidence is missing. In this thesis I attempt to fill this gap, and contribute to the discussion of whether information technology enables places in proximity of large cities to ‘borrow’ urbanization economies?To understand the relation between IT and borrowed size it is important to have a plausible theoretical mechanism. In the introduction of this thesis I have put forward such a theoretical link, that is based on the relation between ubiquitous online information and travel behaviour. In short, I expect that in some cases IT may complement longer distance travel for jobs and local products, which means that in these markets urban scale economies (including better matching and wider product variety) are generated and enjoyed across a greater geographical scale. Based on this theoretical link, I devised two research questions. 1. To what extent does information technology increase the geographical extent of local labour and product markets? 2. To what extent has the advent of information technology led to better local (labour or product) market outcomes in places in proximity of large cities?Urban Studie

Information Technology and Local Product Variety: Substitution, Complementarity and Spillovers

This paper addresses the interaction between information technology (IT) and agglomeration. The literature distinguishes two types of interactions, namely a substitution effect and a complementarity effect. We conceptualise a third effect, namely a ‘spillover’ mechanism, by which IT allows places in close proximity of large cities to ‘borrow size’ and sustain greater product variety. We test these mechanisms using detailed data on restaurant cuisine variety in the Netherlands, and the IT dimension is measured through the use and penetration of online restaurant reviews. We find that IT complements cuisine variety in cities, and induces spillovers to smaller places near larger ones, allowing smaller places to sustain ‘rare’ cuisines that were traditionally only present in larger cities. As such, IT leads to the spread of agglomeration benefits such as local product variety over larger territories.Urban Studie

Population, diversity, and restaurants: trends in the geography of cuisine variety in the Netherlands

Over the past two decades, research in regional science has paid considerable attention to the benefits of urban density and proximity, even though there has been tremendous progress within the same period in technologies that ease the friction of distance (e.g. mobile communication, high-speed internet). Many scholars argue that in spite of falling transportation costs for tradable goods and the proliferation of information and communication technology cities will always have a vital edge in facilitating face-to-face communication. We argue that even if this is the case, there still remains a host of benefits that have come to rely less on urban density and this will have implications for the future of cities. In the current study we focus on one particular type of benefit associated with urban size and density – namely, the availability of a specialized array of urban amenities. More precisely, we use regional data on the distribution of restaurants in the Netherlands, and differentiate them according to their cuisine type. We explore how the presence of cuisine variety relates to population density and diversity, and whether these relationships vary across different city sizes. We find that the explanatory power of population density and diversity diminishes over time, especially in smaller cities. We argue that these trends support the hypothesis that a reduction of spatial information frictions reduces the need for urban density, as benefits associated with larger cities – such as cuisine variety – can be increasingly found in smaller cities.Urban Studie

Reviews, Restaurants en Ruimte: Hoe het delen van ervaringen de ruimtelijke spreiding van het restaurantaanbod beïnvloedt

Het hebben van keuze uit verschillende soorten restaurants wordt gezien als een typisch stedelijk consumptievoordeel. Immers, daar vind je een grote variëteit aan restaurants met keukens uit alle windstreken. Echter, het online delen van ervaringen in restaurants, op recensiewebsites zoals Iens.nl zorgt er via een aantal mechanismen voor dat toegang tot een variëteit aan restaurantkeukens steeds minder voorbehouden is aan alleen stedelingen. Online informatie in de vorm van reviews neemt onzekerheid weg over bestemmingen, waardoor consumenten bereid zijn verder te reizen. Dit vergroot het marktgebied van restaurants. Bovendien maakt online informatie ‘comparison-shopping’ mogelijk zonder dat restaurants ruimtelijk geconcentreerd zijn. Het delen van restaurantervaringen leidt zodoende zowel aan de aanbodzijde (vestigingsgedrag restaurants) als aan de vraagzijde (restaurantkeuze van mensen) tot meer ruimtelijke vrijheden. Wij stellen dat er hierdoor sprake is van een ontstedelijking van de consumptievoordelen voorheen voorbehouden aan de stad. Onze stelling wordt onderbouwd door een analyse met gegevens uit verschillende bronnen. We tonen hiermee aan dat sinds het jaar 2000: (1) het gebruik van recensiewebsites voor restaurants fors is gestegen; (2) de reisbereidheid voor vrijetijdsvoorzieningen is toegenomen; en (3) de relatie tussen de aanbodverscheidenheid van restaurants en de grootte van een gemeente minder sterk is geworden. Uiteindelijk tonen we aan dat (4) een hoger aandeel op Iens.nl geregistreerde restaurants leidt tot meer variatie in restaurantkeukens. ICT maakt dat agglomeratievoordelen steeds minder bepaald worden door de omvang van een stad, wat pleidooien in de planologie en economie om metropolen/grootsteden te ontwikkelen in een verfrissend perspectief plaatst.OLD Urban and Regional Developmen

Working from Home and Commuting: Heterogeneity over Time, Space, and Occupations

Teleworking may increase the willingness to accept a longer commute. This paper presents new evidence of the effect of teleworking on the length of commutes. We use novel panel data from the Netherlands, for the years 2008-2018, and find stronger effects compared to studies that use older data. Between 2008 and 2018 however, the effect was remarkably stable: workers that started teleworking increased their commutes by 12 percent on average. We analyse heterogeneity in the effect of teleworking on commuting acrossdifferent levels of urbanization and across occupations. This study stresses the effects of teleworking on the geographical scale of labour markets, and provides important inputs for policymakers that aim to promote teleworking.Urban Studie

The City as a Self-Help Book: The Psychology of Urban Promises

Despite the many negative aspects of life in cities, urban promises of economic prosperity, freedom and happiness have fuelled the imagination of generations of migrants, who have flocked to cities in search of a better life, invariably exaggerating the opportunities and neglected the potential disadvantages of their choice. This paper uses insights from psychological literature to better understand why people have such strong, positive and apparently overrated expectations about cities. We dwell into concepts of bounded rationality to describe the cognitive biases and heuristics affecting decision-making under uncertainty and apply them to the way individuals perceive and act upon the promises of urban life. By linking this literature to urban theory, we can better understand how individuals make their decisions about moving to and living in cities. We thereby offer an understanding of urbanisation and migration processes departing from economic rationality assumptions and explain the remarkable attractive force of cities throughout human history. Finally, we discuss the ways in which human biases in favour of city narratives and bright urban futures can be exploited by ‘triumphalist’ accounts of cities in policy and media, which neglect the embedded injustices and structural problems of urban life.OLD Urban and Regional DevelopmentOLD Urban Renewal and Housin